Question by Mark J: Legal Advice in the entertainment industry?
Hi there,
I am an independent filmmaker and am going to start shooting my film within two weeks. I plan to take this to film festivals and do other things like that.
Legally I don’t know what I have to do to prepare, I am funding this all out of my pocket. Should I get release forms? What should be written on them? What happeneds if a random person walks into my shot and I decide to use that shot. Are there things I need to be aware of? If someone is wearing a brand name clothing artical or there is a mcdonalds cup in the background could I get in trouble if I decide to take it to film festivals? stuff like this I really need some help with. Thank you!
Best answer:
Answer by wyomingrider
My advice would be to do some legal research on your own.
A good place to start would be a treatise entitled, “Lindey on entertainment, publishing, and the arts : agreements and the law” by Michael Landau
This is a multi-volume set published by West Publishing Company. You can probably find it various law libraries.
Also try: “Entertainment, publishing and the arts handbook”
Also Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco publishes a law review entitled “Comm/Ent” containing pertinent articles. You may find issues of this review in a law library as well.
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